BUTLER TWP — To say the Butler football team has been on a bumpy road of late would be an understatement.

The Golden Tornado (1-6, 1-4) return to Northern Eight play Friday night when they travel to Fox Chapel (1-6, 1-4) for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

Since defeating Shaler in Week 2, Butler has dropped games by scores of 49-19, 49-0, 58-3, 37-0 and 42-7.

“I’m not saying we would have won those games, but the final scores shouldn’t be that lopsided,” Butler coach Clyde Conti said. “I’m disappointed in our overall lack of focus as a team this year.

“We need to fundamentally execute what we’re trying to do on both sides of the ball to have a chance to win. That hasn’t been happening. We’re running out of time trying to convince kids of that.”

The Tornado had a 7-0 lead over Hempfield early in the second quarter last week when a holding penalty cost Butler a critical first down. Shortly after the Tornado punted, Hempfield tied the game.

Moments later, the Spartans blocked a punt and wound up scoring the go-ahead points on the play.

“That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about,” Conti said. “The holding penalty didn’t cost us the game, but it really hurt at the time.

“We were missing assignments on punt blocking all night. If we bobbled another snap, another punt would have been blocked. Things like missed assignments shouldn’t be happenig seven weeks into the season.”

Senior quarterback Tom Jendesky returned to the lineup last week and scored Butler’s lone touchdown after directing a 13-play drive. He leads the Tornado with 394 yards rushing and has completed 37 of 64 passes, but only for 227 yards.

“Tommy’s been doing a lot of good things for us,” Conti said. “We just haven’t had the supporting cast out there with him.”

Numerous injuries forced Butler to cancel its junior varsity game last week.

“A school our size and we have to cancel a JV game? That was frustrating and embarrassing,” Conti said.

Junior linebacker Jeremy Hanford has been Butler’s leading tackler most of the season. He has 51 tackles, including 35 solos, and has been playing hurt. Fellow junior linebacker Lucas Dubyak — second with 37 tackles — missed last week’s game with an injury.

Jake Hays has 33 tackles and 25 solo stops while Derek Gengler has 24 tackles and two sacks, Reid Werth 22 solo tackles.

“The effort has been there,” Conti said. “I can’t fault that. But mistakes have killed us.”

Butler defeated Fox Chapel, 49-7, last year to clinch the Tornado’s first WPIAL playoff berth in 14 years.

“Every year is different,” Conti said. “We graduated four running backs, a quarterback, our split end and some starting linemen from that team.

“Guys who were in support roles last year are now in prominent roles. You always count on a lot of new people ... It doesn’t always come together.”

Despite Fox Chapel’s won-loss record, Conti described the Foxes as “physical, fast and athletic.”

“They have some Division I players on that team, I know that,” he said. “(Fox Chapel coach) Eric Ravotti is a relative of mine and it’s great to see he and his brother Chad coaching together down there.

“I haven’t seen them since a get-together at Freeport at the beginning of the year. It will be fun competing with them.”